(January 1943)

To the Jewish Masses in the Ghetto

On January 22, 1943, six months will have passed since
the deportations from Warsaw began. We all remember well the days of terror
during which 300,000 of our brothers and sisters were cruelly put to death
in the death camp of Treblinka. Six months have passed of life in constant
fear of death, not knowing what the next day may bring. We have received
information from all sides about the destruction of the Jews in the
Government-General, in Germany, in the occupied territories. When we listen
to this bitter news we wait for our own hour to come, every day and every
moment. Today we must understand that the Nazi murderers have let us live
only because they want to make use of our capacity to work to our last drop
of blood and sweat, to our last breath. We are slaves. And when the slaves
are no longer profitable, they are killed. Every one among us must
understand that, and every one among us must remember it always.

During the past few weeks certain people have spread
stories about letters that were said to have been received from Jews
deported from Warsaw, who were said to be in labor camps near Minsk or
Bobruisk. Jews in your masses, do not believe these tales. They are
spread by Jews who are working for the Gestapo. The blood-stained
murderers have a particular aim in doing this: to reassure the Jewish
population in order that later the next deportation can be carried out
without difficulty, with a minimum of force and without losses to the
Germans. They want the Jews not to prepare hiding-places and not to resist.
Jews, do not repeat these lying tales.

Do not help the [Nazi] agents. The Gestapos dastardly
people will get their just desserts. Jews in your masses, the hour
is near. You must be prepared to resist, not to give yourselves up like
sheep to slaughter. Not even one Jew must go to the train. People
who cannot resist actively must offer passive resistance, that is, by
hiding. We have now received information from Lvov that the Jewish
Police there itself carried out the deportation of 3,000 Jews. Such things
will not happen again in Warsaw. The killing of Lejkin proves it.

Now our
slogan must be:

Let everyone be ready to die like a man!

We are rising up for war!

We are of those who have set themselves the aim of
awakening the people. Our wish is to take this watchword to our people:

Awake and fight!

Do not despair of the road to escape!

Know that escape is not to be found by walking to your
death passively, like sheep to the slaughter. It is to be found in
something much greater: in war!

Whoever defends himself has a chance of being saved!
Whoever gives up self-defense from the outset – he has lost already!

Nothing awaits him except only a hideous death in the
suffocation-machine of Treblinka.

Let the people awaken to war!

Find the courage in your soul for desperate action!

Put an end to our terrible acceptance of such phrases
as:

We are all under sentence of death!

It is a lie!!!

We were destined to live! We too have a right to life!

One only needs to know how to fight for it!

It is no great art to live when life is given to you willingly!

But there is an art to life just when they are trying to
rob you of this life.

Let the people awaken and fight for its life!

Let every mother be a lioness defending her young!

Let no father stand by and see the blood of his children
in silence!

Let not the first act of our destruction be repeated!

An end to despair and lack of faith!

An end to the spirit of slavery amongst us!

Let the tyrant pay with the blood of his body for every
soul in Israel!

Let every house become a fortress for us!

Let the people awaken to war!

In war lies your salvation!

Whoever defends himself has a hope of escape!

We are rising in the name of the war for the lives of
the helpless masses whom we seek to save, whom we must arouse to action! It
is not for ourselves alone that we wish to fight. We will be entitled to
save ourselves only when we have completed our duty! As long as the life
of a Jew is still in danger, even one, single, life, we have to be ready to
fight!!!!